Liquity Protocol attracts $1B TVL in just 10 days

The “interest-free loans” decentralized lending protocol now has $1 billion worth of locked-up value after it launched on April 5.

The team behind Liquity Protocol — a DeFi project launched on April 5 — has attracted $1 billion worth of locked up value according to data from Dune Analytics.

The Pantera Capital-backed Liquity is a Swiss-based decentralized and governance-free lending protocol that offers interest-free loans against Ethereum locked as collateral, with users required to maintain a minimum collateral ratio of 110%.

Loans are paid out in the protocol’s algorithmic stable coin LUSD, which is pegged to the value of USD at a one-to-one ratio. The protocol automatically generates LUSD to meet user demand, and so far has minted a supply of 480 million stable coins, with more coins being minted than burned each day.

The loans are secured by the protocol’s Stability Pool that acts as a source of liquidity to repay liquidated debt, and also by fellow borrowers collectively acting as guarantors of last resort. Users can earn money through the protocol by staking liquidity and earn revenue from issuance fees in LUSD and redemption fees in ETH.

Data from the mammoth 10-day run published via DuneAnalytics revealed that borrowing demand has rewarded stakers so far, with an average of roughly $240,000 of fees generated per day on the protocol between April 12 and April 14. The total staked amount edged past $720,000 on April 15, and the majority of users are keeping within a collateral range between 150-250%.

On March 29 Cointelegraph reported that the Liquity Protocol had closed its Series A funding round led by Pantera Capital with a $6 million investment, which included additional contributions from companies such as quantitative investment firm Alameda Research.

The decentralized finance protocol sector continues to push past its all-time highs, with data aggregator DeFi Llama showing that there is now $123.33 billion worth of total locked-up value in DeFi protocols as of today. In its short lifespan, the Liquity Protocol has pushed itself up to rank 26 in the top 100 DeFi protocols with $1.06 billion in TVL.

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Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal: Major Payment Companies and Crypto

Cryptocurrency has rapidly attracted the attention of mainstream companies. One of the year’s most significant trends has concerned the three leading payment companies—Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal—as each company has turned toward crypto.

Visa Will Settle With Crypto

At the end of March, Visa announced that it is working with the digital asset bank Anchorage. This allows its partners to settle transactions in USD Coin (USDC), a dollar-pegged stablecoin. Crypto.com will be the first company to use this feature, but Visa says that it will offer the feature to other companies as time goes on.

This is the result of at least one year of anticipation. In December 2020, Visa announced a partnership with USDC company Circle that prepared the way for the feature. Earlier, in mid-2020, Visa announced a formal stance on cryptocurrency which focused heavily on the potential of stablecoins as well as security and regulatory matters.

Though this is the first time that a Visa card partner will be able to settle in cryptocurrency, Visa already provides payment cards for more than 25 different cryptocurrency companies including Coinbase UK, Fold, and Cred.

Prior to this, Visa also explored a number of enterprise blockchain technologies. In 2016, it created a system called B2B Connect, and in 2018, it worked with Hyperledger Fabric. Both of these systems were used for internal purposes, not retail use.

Finally, Visa has invested in crypto companies. It invested $40 million on Anchorage in 2019, and it spent $30 million on another startup called Chain.com in 2015.

The firm also filed a patent for a digital dollar in 2020, though it should be noted that patents are rarely used. This patent is likely redundant with Visa’s adoption of USDC.

Mastercard Will Support Retail Payments

Mastercard announced its own plans to add support for crypto this February. It will allow merchants and end users to use cryptocurrency.

Though Mastercard will initially support dollar-pegged stablecoins, just like Visa, its services will be relatively public-facing compared to those of its competitor. Whereas Visa is using cryptocurrency for settlement behind-the-scenes, Mastercard will allow merchants and end-users to make cryptocurrency transactions.

Much like Visa, Mastercard previously allowed third-party cryptocurrency companies to create payment cards on their network. Wirex and BitPay are notable partners.

Mastercard also has developed enterprise blockchain solutions. In 2019, it announced plans to create a blockchain-based cross-border payments platform with R3. It additionally joined the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) in 2017, which is largely focused on researching potential uses for the Ethereum blockchain in business.

Mastercard has also invested in blockchain startups. In 2015, it invested an unspecified amount in the Digital Currency Group, a crypto venture capital company.

PayPal Is Already Trading Crypto

PayPal has taken another approach. In August 2020, it announced buying and selling and then introduced those features in October. On Mar. 30, 2021, PayPal added support for crypto payments, allowing users to spend crypto rather than simply buy and sell it.

PayPal will reportedly add cryptocurrency support to its subsidiary, Venmo, by mid-2021. It also plans to expand features to the U.K. quite soon.

The service is offered via Paxos and is available to U.S. customers, who can trade four different cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash.

Internal efforts are also underway. In early 2020, PayPal published job postings in search of a blockchain AML strategy director. Prior to this, PayPal worked with Braintree to allow merchants to accept Bitcoin and filed a patent to enhance blockchain speeds.

Like its competitors, PayPal has invested in crypto startups. In recent years, it has invested in regulatory tools like Cambridge Blockchain, TRM Labs, and IDKeep. In 2021, it made another investment, this time in the crypto tax startup TaxBit.

What Will Payment Companies Do Next?

Now that the largest payment companies are using cryptocurrency for settlement, payments, and trading, it seems likely that each company will expand its features competitively. It is also plausible that any of these companies could invest in cryptocurrency directly, similar to Tesla, Microstrategy, or Square.

However, the trend may not be entirely positive. While some see mainstream adoption as beneficial, payment companies will have extensive control over transactions and the ability to deny service to users—something that Bitcoin was designed to avoid.

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XRP Leads the Majors on Court Boost, LTC Hits New 2021 Highs, BTC, DOGE, Apr. 12

XRP

XRP was one of the top coins for the week with a gain of 85% taking the coin to highs at $1.40. Ripple’s pending court case by the SEC saw some recent twists in the favour of the crypto project and traders are buying in anticipation of a positive result. 

XRP Price Index

 

XRP holders had filed a request to intervene as third-party defendants in the ongoing lawsuit against Ripple Labs. The motion was initially refused and after another attempt, the request was accepted.

Lawyer John E. Deaton has been working on behalf of 10,000 XRP holders as they seek to join the case. Deaton said on his Twitter account:

The SEC told the Judge that it disputes #XRP having ANY utility. The SEC’s best argument against #XRPHolders’ intervention is that we are ‘investors’ and Congress authorized the SEC to make arguments on behalf of investors – even if we disagree.

He added, “I plan to take away their ‘best’ argument by showing that it’s not just #XRPHolders (ie. ‘speculative investors’) that are seeking intervention but also businesses, developers, etc. that utilize XRP”.

The SEC is currently suing Ripple and its executives in a $1.3 billion lawsuit over XRP, which the agency deems is an unregulated security. Ripple Labs disputes that claim and the case will continue throughout this year with some potential volatility in XRP.

Ripple has been seeing positive movement with the case after an SEC lawyer implied that cryptocurrency exchanges were not in violation of securities laws by listing XRP. This brought hopes that the major exchanges would move to re-list XRP. 

The move in the last two weeks has seen XRP back at number four in the list of coins with a valuation of $60 billion. Binance Coin (BNB) sits at number three with a market cap of $90 billion.

LTC

LTC Price Index

Litecoin was another strong mover this week as the coin saw new highs for the year at $260. The coin got a boost from news that CoinShares was launching a physically-backed exchange-traded product on a Swiss exchange, which will allow institutional investor access. The company also suggested that large investors were beginning to look beyond the “big two” cryptocurrencies for value as BTC and ETH hover near all-time highs.

The all-time high in LTC was nearer $360 so it is still some way from the level set in 2017, while the top two currencies have surpassed their highs from that year in a big way.

The ETF will launch under the ticker LITE and will be initially listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange with a fee of 1.5% per annum.  A spokesperson for CoinShares said of the news:

As demand for digital assets amongst the traditional investment community steadily increases, we are starting to see the green shoots of demand for investment exposures outside of the top two dominant networks.

LITE is the third product launched in 2021 by CoinShares institution ETP platform CoinShares Physical. Crypto-backed ETPs have become popular in recent months due to the growing interest of institutions. This trend is acknowledged by Frank Spiteri, Chief Revenue Officer at CoinShares.

CoinShares is the largest digital investment firm in Europe, with over $4 billion in assets under management (AUM). The LITE ETP is the third major launch by the firm in 2021 after a Bitcoin-backed ETP was released in January, closely followed by an Ethereum launch in February.

BTC

BTC Price Index

Bitcoin was back above $60k this week with the coin hitting a high above $61k before retreating. The price is trading at $60,300 on Monday as the coin sees a lack of sellers despite the elevated levels.

Glassnode research has been trying to look at new ways of judging a high in BTC and the company’s CTO Rafael Schultze-Kraft, is looking at long-term coin holdings via “Coin Days Destroyed”, which shows the total amount of holding days “destroyed” by those selling their Bitcoin.

Based on a moving average, the coin days destroyed have pulled back to levels from the summer of 2019, when a price high was already made.

DOGE

Dogecoin has been creeping higher this week with a 23% move higher to trade at $0.072. The coin touched a high at $0.08, which is close to the all-time highs, and a move through here could see further gains in DOGE and could bring other FOMO flows into the coin.

DOGE Price Index

Independent research firm InvestorPlace published an article on DOGE titled “Inflation and Influencers: How Investors Can Send Dogecoin to $10”.

The report started by saying:

“Even without inflationary changes, the price could still hit $1. The cryptocurrency has 130 billion coins outstanding; a $1 price-per-coin will still leave it 55% the size of Ethereum…, the world’s second-largest crypto. And because only the marginal trade matters in asset pricing, even a few major account owners could theoretically send values soaring.”

The company also suggested that Elon Musk or another wealthy benefactor could help improve the coin by setting up a foundation for its development.

If investors want to send Dogecoin prices to $10, far more is needed than buying the coin and posting tweets. It needs a benefactor to help fund improvements. Elon Musk… could make an even bigger impact by starting a “Dogecoin Foundation” to fund development and promote adoption among startups and enterprises.

For now, the price of DOGE could make big advances if it can get through the highs set in February.

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Co-Founder of South Africa’s Crypto Index Fund Reveals the Plan to Launch Country’s First Bitcoin ETF

Earle Loxton, the cofounder of EC10 (formerly DCX Capital) the institution behind the South African crypto index fund, says plans are afoot to launch the country’s first exchange-traded fund (ETF). The ETF is expected to offer South African institutional investors an indirect way of getting exposure to bitcoin.

According to Loxton, an application for this ETF will soon be lodged with the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). However, Loxton also reveals in a podcast that before proceeding with the application, EC10 alongside Easy Equities will initially prioritize finding a suitable custodian for its crypto assets. Loxton explained:

To get to the level where we will be compliant with the requirements of a listed instrument, we definitely need the services of a dedicated, regulated and registered custodian.

Therefore, as part of an arrangement, Easy Equities, which acquired the controlling stake in DCX Capital in 2020, will help secure the services of a custodian. This custodian will safely store some of the ten crypto assets that constitute the EC10 Index.

Meanwhile, during the podcast, Loxton also took the time to explain the decision to hike the EC10 management fees from 1% to 2%. In justifying the fee increase, the fund’s co-founder said:

“At 1% to be absolutely honest with you, we were never going to make a profit at 1% growing at that rate.”

Loxton also adds that because the business, which now has $27 million worth of assets under management, experienced a slow start, it, therefore, made sense to hike the fee. The EC10 index fund.

Do you believe that the JSE is now ready to approve a crypto ETF? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

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NFT Roundup: Tom Brady’s Autograph Initiative, Topps Digital Baseball Cards, Annoying Orange’s 4K NFT Clip

The past week has been busier than usual for the NFT ecosystem. Rap stars Jeezy and Riff Raff entered the NFT realm, Hoard introduced its lending platform for NFT-collateralized crypto loans, The Topps Company is dropping its Series 1 Baseball collectibles, super-quarterback Tom Brady is launching his own NFT initiative, Terra Virtua is releasing a Godzilla vs. Kong NFT line, and even Annoying Orange is NFTing.

NFT-Collateralized Crypto Loans Arrive

Hoard, an Ethereum-based NFT marketplace, launches a new loan platform called Pawn Shop, where you can use your NFTs as collateral to obtain crypto loans. The platform will support users as they trade, buy, sell, loan, and rent NFTs like in-game items, domain names, digital art, and more.

If you own extra stablecoins and are looking for a way to generate profit from them, Hoard’s platform offers you high profits as a lender. The platform plans to gradually transition into a DAO with its own governance token, the HRD coin.

The First MLB Baseball Card NFT Collection Is Unveiled

In partnership with Major League Baseball and MLB Players Inc., Topps Digital announced the launch of its 2021 Topps Series 1 Baseball NFT collectibles on WAX, becoming the first major brand to debut its popular yearly baseball card collection as NFTs.

Leading a new revolution in baseball collectibles, The Topps Company aims to engage and delight global fans by releasing its flagship yearly card collection as NFTs. Besides artwork from the physical collectibles, anniversary sets will also be digitized and minted as officially licensed Topps MLB NFT collectibles.

Tom Brady Wades Into NFTs

Adding to the celebrity endorsements of the non-fungible token market, seven-time Superbowl champion quarterback Tom Brady is launching an NFT platform titled Autograph later this spring.

Autograph will focus on bringing together artists and icons from the sports, entertainment, fashion, and pop culture worlds to create unique digital collectibles for the platform. Brady will also be featured in a lineup of NFTs that will be geared towards sports fans and collectors.

Godzilla Vs. Kong NFTs Launched on Terra Virtua

In celebration of Godzilla vs. Kong’s international launch, Legendary Entertainment collaborated with Terra Virtua and artist Bosslogic to release an exclusive “Godzilla vs. Kong” NFT line of digital collectibles, which were showcased on the marketplace in time with the movie’s March 31 release.

Seven unique artworks signed by the original creator, including God vs. King, King vs. God, MachineGod, Legends Will Collide, One Will Fall, Godzilla Steps Up, and Kong Steps Up, are now open for sale for a limited time.

Jeezy Turns Iconic Snowman Logo Into Animated NFT

Multi-platinum selling rapper, Jeezy, is entering the NFT domain after announcing a collaboration with Liquid Avatar Technologies to mint and sell the iconic snowman logo. The series of limited-edition animated and AR-enhanced NFTs will feature Jeezy discussing the iconic snowman and its influence on hip-hop culture in an audio clip.

Although the sale is scheduled to start later this month, interested buyers can join the pre-sale waiting list on Liquid Avatar’s Oasis Digital Studios official website.

American Rapper Riff Raff Lines Up Seven NFTs for Sale

To mark the release of his new album in collaboration with Yelawolf, Turquoise Tornado, American rapper Riff Raff partners with renowned NFT platform Sweet to drop a series of collectibles.

The set of seven NFTs, including unreleased audio, exclusive album art, and unique video collectible, is listed for sale on the platform with prices ranging between $4.99 and $19.99. This partnership highlights Riff Raff’s interest to democratize NFTs while making them accessible to everyone.

Another ‘Dank Meme’ Enters the NFT Market

Annoying Orange, an animated Youtube character, is the latest old meme to break into the NFT market. The animation team behind this YouTube personality recently tweeted that they will remaster the original video from 2009, which has been viewed 228 million times, into 4K resolution and re-release it as NFT.

The sale, scheduled to start on April 15, has drawn much criticism and backlash from the online community. However, it is unclear if the backlash will affect the sale of the product.

If you had to take a guess, how much would Annoying Orange’s NFT would sell for? Let us know in the comments section below.

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‘Weird Coins Like DOGE and XRP Spike’- Galaxy Digital’s Mike Novogratz Warns of a Crypto Market ‘Washout’ 

Bitcoin bull and billionaire investor Mike Novogratz has warned about cryptocurrency market volatility in a recent interview stemming from the Barron’s and Marketwatch’s “Investing in Crypto” virtual event series. In general and over the long term, Novogratz is bullish about bitcoin and companies like Coinbase remaining prosperous.

Novogratz Warns of a Crypto Market ‘Washout’

Shares in Coinbase Global, Inc. (Nasdaq: COIN) are currently down 5% since yesterday’s opening and during the launch billionaire Mike Novogratz spoke about the San Francisco firm and the crypto-economy in general. Novogratz has been a long-time supporter of bitcoin (BTC) and other digital assets like ethereum (ETH) as well. Just recently, the crypto investment company he founded, Galaxy Digital filed an application with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to list a bitcoin exchange-traded fund.

While speaking positively about the COIN launch on Wednesday, Novogratz said the excitement would cause some crypto market volatility. “In the next week, certainly we could have some volatility because of the excitement around Coinbase,” the former Fortress executive said during his interview with Marketwatch. Despite his recent statements on CNBC and saying he is “feeling bullish [about] the crypto economy,” Novogratz envisions a shakeup.

His statements were directed at XRP and dogecoin when he said:

I’ve seen a lot of weird coins like dogecoin and even XRP have huge retail spikes, which means there’s a lot of frenzy right now. That never ends well, and so we’ll probably have a washout at one point.

Novogratz Considers Coinbase IPO ‘Monumental,’ Crypto Exchange Exec Sees a 40% Chance of $70K Bitcoin Prices by the End of May

Both dogecoin (DOGE) and XRP have seen colossal gains during the last seven days. At the time of writing, seven-day stats for XRP stand at +64.61% gained and dogecoin gained +114.15% this week. As far as shares of COIN launching, the Coinbase IPO was “monumental” for the industry Novogratz stressed.

Pankaj Balani, the CEO of Delta Exchange indicates his short term outlook after the COIN listing is a lot more optimistic than Novogratz’s opinion.

“Coinbase opened just under the 100BN valuation mark but it failed to sustain the initial gains and closed about 15% lower from the open price,” Balani said. “There have been some concerns around the valuation of the company, given the volatility in its earnings, but that does not take away from the fact that it has the largest market share amongst regulated centralized exchanges, in the U.S., and its business is close to a monopoly, at this point,” the crypto derivatives exchange CEO added.

Delta Exchange’s Balani believes that by the end of May, there is a 40% chance that bitcoin (BTC) prices could tap $70k per unit.

“The next few sessions of trading will decide how new investors are looking at the stock and the sector,” Balani remarked. “Crypto investors are also keenly tracking COIN price as it becomes a proxy for traditional investors’ interest in the crypto space. We saw Bitcoin correct in the wake of COIN’s tepid listing but it held its monthly gains and the crucial $61,000 levels. The sentiment continues to remain strong with the options market currently pricing a 40% chance of BTC hitting $70,000 by the end of May,” Balani concluded.

What do you think about bitcoin bull and billionaire investor Mike Novogratz’s opinion about a crypto market washout? Let us know what you think about his opinion in the comments section below.

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World’s Largest Asset Manager Blackrock: Cryptocurrency Could Become a ‘Great Asset Class’

The CEO of Blackrock, the world’s largest asset manager, says that he is fascinated by cryptocurrency, believing that it could become a “great asset class.” However, he said that Blackrock has not received many inquiries from its institutional clients about having bitcoin in their portfolios.

Blackrock’s CEO ‘Fascinated’ About Crypto

Following Coinbase’s IPO via a direct listing on Nasdaq, Blackrock CEO Larry Fink was asked in an interview with CNBC Wednesday whether his view on cryptocurrency has changed. Blackrock is the world’s largest asset manager, with more than $8.7 trillion in assets under management.

“I’m still fascinated about it,” he began. “I’m encouraged by how many people are focusing on it. I’m encouraged about the narrative. It may become a great asset class.” He emphasized, “I do believe this could become a great asset class, cryptocurrency.” However, the executive noted: “I don’t believe it’s a substitute for currencies. I think we are going to have cryptocurrencies of dollars, cryptocurrencies of other currencies.”

The Blackrock CEO elaborated:

I don’t believe we should think about crypto as a substitute for currencies. I am fascinated by it as an asset class.

He clarified: “I am still watching … We are investing in it … We are studying it. We made money on it.” Nonetheless, he revealed: “Our investors worldwide, we don’t have that much inquiry on it.”

Fink was specifically asked whether Blackrock’s institutional clients are asking him about bitcoin and cryptocurrencies regarding having some exposure in their portfolios, because that is the narrative that the market has been focusing on, including in the valuation of Coinbase.

“We are not having those conversations,” he affirmed, but quickly added that “maybe they are talking to somebody else.” He clarified: “I don’t want to suggest that we have perfect information but our broad base client relationships, we have had very little interconnectivity on the conversation on crypto other than a fascination.”

He further opined: “The amount of conversation we are having on climate risk and how they can navigate their portfolios is a major component of the conversation. The conversation about deficits and the conversation we are having on inflation risk is far more dominant for our clients worldwide than the whole conversation about crypto.”

The Blackrock executive noted: “We didn’t have any conversations around Reddit and Gamestop and what does that mean with our clients either, and yet it represents a major component of the markets. It’s fascinating to watch.”

In conclusion, Fink said:

So, I do believe there is component of the financial markets about crypto that is real, that is growing. But, if you’re asking specifically about long-term investing, from sovereign wealth funds, from pension funds, from retirement services, from big family offices, the conversation about crypto is a very minor conversation compared to other conversations.

In November last year, Blackrock Chief Investment Officer of Global Fixed Income Rick Rieder said that “cryptocurrency is here to stay” and bitcoin could replace gold. In December, Fink said that bitcoin makes the U.S. dollar less relevant, noting that cryptocurrency can evolve into a global market. Blackrock then revealed in February that it had started investing in bitcoin.

What do you think about what Fink said about cryptocurrency? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Bitcoin (BTC) Price Prediction: BTC/USD Pauses Above $62,000 Support As Bulls Prepare For The Next Round Of Upside Momentum

Bitcoin (BTC) Price Prediction – April 16, 2021
Bitcoin price now fluctuates between $62,000 and $65,000 as bulls struggle to break above the $65,000 resistance. For the past three days, the BTC/USD price has been in a downwards correction above the $62,000 support. Bitcoin will attain a new high above $70,000 if the bulls clear the resistance at $65,000.

Resistance Levels: $65,000, $70,000, $75,000
Support Levels: $50,000, $45,000, $40,000

BTC/USD – Daily Chart

It is no longer news that buyers have overcome the $60,000 ad $61,825 resistance levels after one month of price struggle. The breakout above the resistance levels propels the price to rally to $65,000 high. Nonetheless, for the past three days, buyers are still struggling to overcome the new resistance level at $65,000. After its initial fall to $61,306 low, BTC price resumed fluctuation between $62,000 and $64,000. Buyers have not been able to retest the $65,000 resistance as price consolidates above the $62,000 support. On the upside, if buyers breach the $65,000 resistance, Bitcoin will rally above the $70,000 psychological price level. On the other hand, if sellers break the $62,000 support, the king coin will decline to $60,000 low.

Europe’s Second Largest Insurance Firm, AXA Begins Acceptance of Bitcoin as Payment
AXA has become Switzerland’s first all-line insurer to offer its customers to pay their bills with Bitcoin. Bitcoin payments will be accepted for nearly all AXA products, except for life insurance due to regulatory barriers to the latter. This new policy arrangement has been facilitated through a partnership with the established cryptocurrency broker Bitcoin Suisse. The accelerated digital transformation of the global economy during the coronavirus pandemic has been the main reason for the adoption of Bitcoin as a means of payment. Another reason is that market research conducted by AXA showed that a third of respondents aged between 18 and 55 are interested in Bitcoin. According to AXA Switzerland, “the acceptance of Bitcoin payments is AXA’s response to growing demand from its customers for alternative payment solutions, with new technologies playing an ever greater role.”

BTC/USD – 4 Hour Chart

Bitcoin price is consolidating above the $62,000 support as it prepares for the next round of upside momentum. According to the Fibonacci tool indicator, Bitcoin will rise to the next psychological price level. Meanwhile, on April 14 uptrend; a retraced candle body tested the 50% Fibonacci retracement level. The retracement implies that Bitcoin will rise to level 2.0 Fibonacci extension or the high of $70,057.50.

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Meltem Demirors Depicts Coinbase IPO As Biggest Event Of 2021

CoinShares’ Meltem Demirors has said that Bitcoin allows different investors to accumulate wealth. Bitcoin hit yet another record high on Tuesday, trading above $63,000.

Demirors’ Take On Coinbase Listing

According to the crypto strategist who spoke on CNBC’s Squawk Box, Bitcoin has created much wealth for people who weren’t part of the traditional financial system.

Demirors, who said she got into Bitcoin when it was barely 150 per coin, made these comments one day before Coinbase’s Nasdaq debut.

The CoinShares CSO said Coinbase’s public debut on Wednesday was a major milestone in the crypto world, making thousands of crypto lovers multimillionaires and billionaires. She noted that these crypto enthusiasts would probably take some of their listing proceeds and continue to invest in the crypto ecosystem.

“There’s really this nice recursive effect where this industry isn’t just about the assets. It’s now really about the companies, which we’ve been investing in for almost a decade now,” Demirors added.

Also talking about the Bitcoin evolution and Coinbase listing is Soona Amhaz, a general partner of crypto venture firm Volt Capital who said Coinbase’s direct listing is far from the only exciting development for digital assets.

According to Amhaz, another exciting thing about crypto right now is the number of crypto companies being built which is certain to expand the number of digital asset users worldwide.

Demirors is a well-known crypto bull known for her solid takes in the industry. Demirors is also a frequent guest on CNBC and an advisor on multiple projects, such as Casa and Shyft Network.

She’s also a board member of the Stacks Foundation, a nonprofit organization that promotes development on the Stacks network (formerly Blockstack).

Bitcoin’s Recent Progress

Bitcoin’s recent surge and adoption can be factored into the increasing institutional investors in the industry. Companies such as Microstrategy, Tesla, and Square have purchased Bitcoin, adding it to their portfolio.

Last month, Morgan Stanley was the first major US bank to announce it would start offering its wealth management clients access to Bitcoin funds. Goldman Sachs also disclosed its plans to take similar steps for clients of its private wealth management group. According to Mary Rich in an interview with CNBC, Goldman would offer Bitcoin investments and other digital assets to its high-value clients.

Also, recall that the Bank Of New York Mellon announced a crypto unit for crypto traders earlier this year, signaling its acceptance of the currency. Other banks like JP Morgan also followed suit, with the latest one being the launch of Cryptocurrency Exposure Basket – a debt instrument with positions in 11 companies. The debt instrument reportedly allocates 20% to MicroStrategy and 18% to Jack Dorsey-led Square Inc, the two companies that declared their Bitcoin investments early on.

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Bitcoin Price Prediction: BTC/USD Trades Above $62,500 Resistance After A Sharp Sell-off

Bitcoin (BTC) Price Prediction – April 14

The daily chart reveals that Bitcoin (BTC) bulls still remain in control as the price heads toward a $63,000 resistance level.

BTC/USD Long-term Trend: Bullish (Daily Chart)

Key levels:

Resistance Levels: $69,000, $71,000, $73,000

Support Levels: $57,000, $55,000, $53,000

BTCUSD – Daily Chart

After trading close to the $61,000 support level, BTC/USD is seen following a bullish sentiment as the market price hits the daily high at $64,896 resistance. At the moment, the BTC price is trading around $62,632. However, bulls are gaining control of the market. It is important to realize that the market is still ready for further upside near to mid-term because the gap has not been filled.

Despite the Recent Selloff, BTC/USD Remains Above $62,000

At the moment, the buyers appeared to be gaining control of the market, if the bulls can manage to break above the upper boundary of the channel, the next buying pressure can be expected at $69,000, $71,000, and perhaps $73,000 resistance as the market is currently testing below the 70-level of the daily RSI (14). Meanwhile, a bounce below the moving averages could send the market to $57,000, $55,000, and $53,000 supports.

BTC/USD Medium-Term Trend: Bullish (4H Chart)

On the 4-hour chart, a retest of $62,700 gives the impression that bulls are not yet done. The Bitcoin price rises to fill a significant gap as the bulls remained in control which may take the coin towards the $64,000. In a short time, BTC/USD may hit $63,000 if the bullish pressure continues. Otherwise, the price may plummet to $60,000 and below.

BTCUSD – 4 Hour Chart

On the upside, a bullish move may continue to meet resistance at around $64,500 and above. As of now, the 4-hours RSI (14) is coming out of the negative zone, now turning upward. This could mean that BTC/USD trading is looking for another close resistance. Meanwhile, a significant cross below the 50-level may send the market in a bearish scenario.

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Bitcoin Price Prediction: BTC/USD Couldn’t Breakout; Price Remains Below $64,800

Bitcoin (BTC) Price Prediction – April 14

At the moment, BTC/USD drops by a total of 2.46% within the last few hours as it trades at the $62,024 level.

BTC/USD Long-term Trend: Bullish (Daily Chart)

Key levels:

Resistance Levels: $68,000, $70,000, $72,000

Support Levels: $58,000, $56,000, $54,000

BTCUSD – Daily Chart

The daily chart reveals that BTC/USD couldn’t trade above the upper boundary of the ascending channel as it fails to close above the $64,896 resistance. The Bitcoin (BTC) begins the day off by trending higher toward the $65,000 level only to fall back and slides toward the 9-day and 21-day moving averages. Similarly, the first level of support is located at $62,000. Beneath this, support lies at $58,000, $56,000, and $54,000 levels.

What to Expect From Bitcoin (BTC)

The daily chart reveals that Bitcoin has failed to break above this ascending channel as it looks to set up another few days of negative price declines beneath $62,500. A break above this channel would have set Bitcoin up to reach the $65,000 resistance level but instead, the king coin slides below the daily high.

However, BTC/USD is strongly supported at the various former resistance levels include $61,000 and $60,000. More so, bulls are also banking on the moving averages to ensure that in spite of a reversal, the Bitcoin price stays above the $60,000 level. Moreover, if the first digital asset decides to trade above the upper boundary of the channel, the nearest resistance levels could be located at $68,000, $70,000, and $72,000 respectively. Meanwhile, the RSI (14) is seen dropping below 65-level, which may give some bearish signals.

BTC/USD Medium-Term Trend: Bullish (4H Chart)

The 4-hour chart shows that the Bitcoin bears are now stepping back into the market pushing the BTC price below its previous support level that existed around $62,200. Although the Bitcoin price has not yet slipped below $61,000, it’s still in the loop of making a bounce back and trade above the $62,000 level. Presently, the Bitcoin price hovers around $62,078.09 and may take time to persistently trade above $64,800.

BTCUSD – 4 Hour Chart

In addition, BTC/USD is within the 9-day and 21-day moving averages but the upward movement may likely push the price to the nearest resistance at $64,000 and above while the immediate support lies at $60,000 and below. Meanwhile, the RSI (14) is moving below the 60-level, which indicates more bearish signals may come into play.

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PayPal CEO Speculates Its Crypto Commerce Will Reach $200M In Months

Bitcoin’s price is reaching brand new all-time highs, and major corporations that already boast existing crypto offerings are starting to make grander plans for the future of their crypto space.

Talking About How Today’s Financial System Needs Updating

Dan Schulman stands as the CEO of PayPal and has recently hinted that PayPal’s crypto offering will see future developments. This was done  at Forbes’ online event that occurred on the 13th of April, 2021, dubbed the “2021 Blockchain 50 Symposium: Crypto Goes Corporate”

In this event, Schulman held a fireside chat with the associate editor of Forbes, one Michael Del Castillo. In this chat, Schulman promised that the financial system will see more changes within the next five years than it had seen within the past 30 years, making note that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin will stand as the trailblazers in this new innovation. Schulman further speculated that credit card and cash transactions will be severely reduced within the next five to ten years, as well.

Crypto Possible Financial Solution For The World

In his statement, he asserted that the era of digital currencies is looming ever closer, hammering home the tremendous potential that these digital currencies hold. He stated that digital currencies will increase the utility of payments, be it cryptocurrency or central bank digital currency (CBDC), reducing the expenses and increasing the inclusion of the world’s financial system.

Schulman is convinced that today’s society’s largest challenges stem from the fact that the financial systems of this day and age exclude millions of people from it across the globe. Schulman stated that this was particularly apparent within the US, as millions of underbanked or even unbanked US citizens need to wait for a long time in order to get the latest round of stimulus checks through the mail. However, the Americans that already boast a bank account had instantly received these deposits.

Promises From PayPal To Improve The System

With this as an example, Schulman hammered home the overall inefficiencies of the financial system of today, noting the amount of time it takes to receive money, in particular. This becomes an even more challenging facet of life when you looking at low-income individuals that need the money as quickly as they can get it.

Schulman explained that the crypto offering of PayPal, which went live in November of 2021, will eventually allow users to do far more than just sell, buy and otherwise hold various cryptocurrencies. This comes in a bid to solve the issues mentioned above, as PayPal revealed back at the end of March that the platform will soon see its merchants accept crypto payments, as well.

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New Liquidity Mining Program Of $40 Million Launched By Polygon And Aave

One of the most vital scaling solutions for Ethereum at this time, Polygon, has recently launched a new liquidity mining program. This program was launched with the cooperation of Aave.

$40 Million For Liquidity Rewards

The team behind this mining protocol has even allocated a total of $40 million, dedicated for rewards to both borrowers and lenders. Of this $40 million, most of the solution comes from MATIC allocating 1% of its entire supply. Through this new liquidity mining protocol, users are capable of earning rewards through the use of Aave’s polygon market and the borrowing and depositing of assets.

Aave saw itself be launched on Polygon just last month, standing as part of an ongoing plan to increase the scalability of the Ethereum network’s DeFi space. Another important announcement of that move was the fact that Aave had joined an array of sidechains, as well, all in a bid to dodge the spectacular gas fees Ethereum is experiencing.

The Mandatory Public Statement

Stani Kulechov stands as Aave’s founder, and gave comment on the role Polygon has played in the increasing accessibility of the DeFi space. He stated through a press release that the entire point of DeFi was the creation of an inclusive, sustainable alternative to the traditional finance options. He warned that it doesn’t matter how great DeFi is if it’s limited to portfolios no smaller than five figures, which will see it fail the very mission it was built for: provide finance for everyone. Through Polygon, this future can be enabled, said Kulechov, as it increases the accessibility of DeFi to a wider global audience.

Sandeep Nailwal stands as the COO and co-founder of Polygon, and had added to the statement as well. He explained that he himself was quite excited to see Aave and Polygon join up, as both their communities share various values such as open-source development and the support of the Ethereum Ecosystem.

The Great Ethereum Gas Fee Dodge

Ethereum owns the lion’s share of the DeFi space, which doesn’t mean much when the gas fees are so high as to make it unusable for lower-income individuals. Through the use of Aave and protocols like it within the mainnet of Ethereum, hundreds of dollars of fees could be accrued thanks to the very complex way these smart contracts interact with each other.

As for MATIC rewards for this liquidity mining program, this will be distributed through two phases. The first phase will see Polygone pay out 0.5% of the total supply to liquidity providers, doing so until the 14th of June, 2021. Afterward, from the 14th of June to the 13th of April, 2022, Polygon will distribute the remainder 0.5%.

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WallStreetBets Now Allows Crypto Discussions Amid Greater Adoption

2021 is a very strange year indeed. 2020 had its few ups and its many downs, but 2021 has had its own fair share of strange events. One such event is r/WallStreetBets, a Reddit community that decided to enact a short squeeze on the stocks of GameStop. The entire debacle cost billions for hedge funds and raked in millions for the many retail traders that took part in it. The community became such a noteworthy facet of the finance space that impactful news articles can be written about them.

Acknowledging The Success Of Crypto

Alongside this, Bitcoin’s rampant institutional adoption as of late, including some adoption for Ethereum and other altcoins, has propelled the crypto space to a brand new level of mainstream integration. With this, r/WallStreetBets was hit with a problem: Nonstop discussions about Bitcoin on a stock trading forum has forced the moderators to concede, and Bitcoin discussions can now be done amid the growing wave of positive crypto sentiments.

Indeed, Ether, Dogecoin, and Bitcoin can all be discussed by way of a daily discussion thread about cryptocurrencies. Bawse1, the moderator of the forum, had explicitly stated that there’s a “no cryptocurrency” rule within the forum. r/SatoshiStreetBets stands as r/WallstreetBets’ counterpart, dedicated fully to crypto trading, but it seems that the moderators were forced to give some ground. While the overall forum forbids discussion of cryptocurrencies, the daily crypto thread will now allow for it within that singular thread.

Trying To Maintain Forum Fundamentals

In the post announcing the new crypto thread, it explained that the moderators have found no point in delaying what they called the inevitable any longer. The post acknowledged the fact that cryptocurrencies are here to stay. Mainly, the dominant concern about why r/WallStreetBets had banned crypto discussions is that it might overtake the discussions about the stock market, which is its core purpose.

Now, there is an overlap between crypto and stocks: Crypto miner firm stocks. While r/WallStreetBets is most famous for the “Gamestonks” event, it has made multiple mentions of crypto miners such as Marathon Digital Holdings and Riot Blockchain. These crypto mining firms had their shares perform wonderfully over the year as Bitcoin saw another massive rise in price.

Bitcoin Rises In Price Once More

This positive crypto sentiment was only spurred forward when Bitcoin came close to achieving $65,000 in price, marking a brand new all-time high. Now, the asset is back to trading within the $62,000 range, but another breakout attempt will happen in due time.

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Jack Dorsey’s Crypto Open Patent Alliance Joined By BitPay

BitPay, a prominent crypto payments processor, has officially joined up with the Crypto Open Patent Alliance, or COPA. Through this, BitPay agrees to share various open-source projects and take part within a shared patent library. This was announced by BitPay on Wednesday the 14th of April, 2021.

The Mandatory Public Statements

Square, the FinTech payments firm headed by Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, stands as the founder of COPA. The Alliance was formed back in September of last year in a bid to make the foundational technologies of cryptocurrencies accessible to everyone in the world. This would, in turn, support the growth of the industry at large, as well.

Stephan Pair stands as the CEO of BitPay and gave a public statement within the press release. He explained that BitPay supporting and partnering with COPA stands as a testament to the payment processor’s belief that blockchain technology is standing at an inflection point. He explained Bitpay believes that Crypto is becoming mainstream, which will change the way consumers and businesses receive and otherwise spend payments forever.

Helping Jumpstart The Crypto Space

COPA provides an open patent library, allowing for various obstacles in the way of crypto technological innovation to be completely removed. Anyone can take part in this alliance, without even needing their own patents.

Kirupa Pushparaj stands as the Chairman of the COPA Board, and gave a public statement about the matter as well. Pushparaj explained that the entire goal of COPA is to eliminate the warriors surrounding innovations, and patents stand as a potential of becoming one. Pushparaj openly welcomed BitPay, predicting that it will provide many contributions to the payments and blockchain space.

A New Age For Crypto Industry

Jagruti Solanki stands as the CFO of BitPay, and gave a statement about the crypto space at PYMNTS. Solanki explained that the crypto space is gaining a large amount of momentum as an emerging industry, and both regulators and businesses are now forced to navigate this territory and learn the overall process. As such, Solanki stressed that the key to moving the crypto space forward is to ensure cooperation and collaboration. She explained that if people teach and learn together, they will grow together as well

As for what BitPay does, it allows for the use of cryptocurrencies to ensure borderless payments. This, in turn, reduces the risks of potential fraud and decreases the overall costs of processing the payments, as well.

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